When TV Everywhere … Isn’t

As I write this on Friday, I facea weekend conundrum. Before catching atrain north to the Hudson Valley tomorrow,do I leave early and get there around 3 p.m.to catch the local Knicks and Rangers playoffgames, or leave late after watching them athome?

The reason for this is, outrageously, despiteall the money I pay for cable TV and Internet,those games aren’t available for me to watchlive on an iPad extension.

I kid about the outrage. Sort of. But mysubscription-extending services such as TimeWarner Cable’s TWC TV live streaming of theTV lineup, HBO Go and WatchESPN havemade me come to expect to get my TV on anywhereI can get ’Net access. (The Knicks’ game is on ABCand not on WatchESPN, darn it.)

This week’s cover story gets into consumer expectationsof “TV Everywhere,” which is one of those terms whosedefinition expands or contracts depending on who uses it.

To cable companies and Dish Network, which is tryingto trademark the term, TV Everywhere essentially meansaccess to on-demand shows from programmers you subscribeto as part of your bundle. More and more, it alsomeans live streams of those services, in the home and, insome cases, outside the home.

For Viacom, which finds its networks losingviewers to Netflix and other alternatives,it’s an extension distributors need to payfor, as Denise Denson said.

And for newcomers like NimbleTV, TV Everywhere means an opportunity toextend customers’ multichannel bundle anywherein the world — and on any device.

All of which makes (program note coming)this Thursday’s MCN/B&C event “TV In a MultiplatformWorld” at the Sentry Centers Midtown East essentialviewing.

Keynotes will include HBO co-president Eric Kesslerand ESPN senior vice president Matt Murphy. Comcast,Turner, CBS and other key players will also be on hand totackle some of the big questions. Including:

How quickly do multichannel distributors need to getTV Everywhere going and how expansive do the offeringshave to be? How much value really is added? How do theprogrammers get paid?